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by thespis_hauntings



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: F/M, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-10
Updated: 2015-11-10
Packaged: 2018-05-01 00:01:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5184671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thespis_hauntings/pseuds/thespis_hauntings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>henry, cordelia, and their daughter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	home

**Author's Note:**

> hmm i wrote this a few months ago & its just been sitting in my files but i think its pretty good
> 
> really really vague summary bc im posting this in class so im distracted & also i have no idea what to say about this

the swamps are no place to raise a child.

the dark bogs of plegia, in its uppermost corners, bordering ferox, are so different from the desert at first cordelia's not sure if they're in the same country. just a few days ago her and her husband had been lying in the golden sand under a thrown-together tent, dreaming of the life they were going to live, their daughter sleeping on henry's chest, the golden haze of the sun lazily sliding over them.

and now this country, this country where she learned to lose and fight and love, this eerie place of wizards who live underground and accept payment through shop windows level with the cobblestone, is her home. but once more it seems threatening, the dark trees glistening with silver drops of something- something, something, that cordelia can't and doesn't want to put a name to, now welcome her. 

henry doesn't notice her discomfort at first. it's been years since grima was banished and yet the fell dragon's presence is still strong. his spirit is in the prayers henry whispers at night to keep severa safe, in the candles lit for the dead that line the otherwise pitch-black roads, in the muck and mire that has claimed several lives in its own almost sentient way.

so much here is different from ylisse. the red-head shivers and draws the thick wool blanket closer to her body, little severa at only 4 is cuddling close to her on her lap and sighs in her sleep at the new-found warmth. 

cordelia's original choice had been ylisstol. she had said to raise their family in the capital, near chrom and robin, so severa could see lucina and morgan, so severa could shop at cordelia's favorite spots and go to the same school and learn the same lessons that had crafted perfect, beautiful, strong, cordelia. cordelia's crisp and cold voice, sharp and dangerous, was something she wanted to pass on. that ylissean accent that was trademark to her country, something to give to her daughter, who had already proved to have powerful lungs even at her young age.

henry had said no. 

and she respected that. too much had gone wrong in his past, ylisse and its capital was a place of confusion and pain and nowhere close to a home. it never would be for him, and he convinced cordelia eventually to live in plegia. for the good of all of them.

cordelia murmurs a lullaby in her painfully obviously foreign inflection. she'll never get over henry's heavy, slurring, plegian accent, how his words seem to drip and melt and come together like hot wax, she'll never stop tripping up on how he calls her 'cord-ya' and their daughter 'suh-vahrah'. even his own ylissean name he butchers, turning it into hen-rye, his name is a gift from the institution of his past and the only thing he kept.

"there's a town up ahead." he looks back from where he's walking, and smiles in an odd and tilted fashion, to which she shakily grins back.

"resting or staying?" she sounds tired, and severa cringes at how loud she is. the whipping wind has changed her perception of noise.

"staying. it's a great place, trust me, some really nice schools, and it's not too dangerous, it's far away enough from the desert, close enough to the forests, only a few days away from some major hot-spots." he pauses in his step and reaches up to take their daughter from his wife, who lets her go sliding into his arms. "i've been working on a way to carry her."

"oh really?" she giggles and shifts around on her pegasus, the rest of her herd will fly over later. it whinnies under her weight, not intended for burden, the packages hurt it and she strokes its head, to which it flaps its wings, causing severa to cry.

"sh, sh, be silent." henry's gentle command carries ominous undertones. he sets her down for a minute and she grasps on to his cloak. "hey, hey, i need that!" his laugh is bubbly and short, sometimes sounding like a caw, but it makes severa smile, showing tiny teeth.

henry undoes his cloak and holds it at the clasp. he reaches into his bag and pulls a thin sheet of yellowed parchment out of his flux tome, from which he reads a chant in plegian that darkens the sun and sends shivers down cordelia's spine. flowers turn away and the cloak lifts itself into the air. it starts to spin and turn until it's formed a sort of hanging hammock.

severa stares in wonder and shrieks when henry places her into it. cordelia trusts her husband, but still leans forward, just in case. always just in case. 

eventually severa calms at the gentle rocking motion as the cloak follows the movement of henry's hand, and she falls asleep. he redirects it up to cordelia, who lets it hover directly in front of her, so that she could grab her at a moment's notice, but so that she isn't disturbed. henry shakes his hand and then drops his arm, but the makeshift crib continues to rock.

in this odd manner the group of a husband, a wife, a daughter in a floating wrap, a pegasus, a flock of crows, and a shrine being tugged along by the pegasus reach their new house. cordelia immediately unloads her steed and it neighs appreciatively before flapping up into the sky a few times and performing a few broad swoops, stretching its wings as far as it can.

"did you have to bring that?" cordelia gestures towards the shrine, which is more of just a rough carving, it's made of a dark obsidian and covered in a sort of gold dust, the dark energy it exudes disturbs cordelia. grima's awful humanoid face which so closely resembles robin stares out at her and she covers the eyes with her palm before they can begin glowing.

"it's important. and grima can't contact through it, at least, not anymore."

"you are not going to raise severa to be grimleal."

he shrugs and nods before setting up the statue in front of their door. "it's tradition to welcome grima into your new home on the first day, his soul protects it, and therefore you. grima is our blood, here, cordelia. grima's blood and grima's bones, grima's flesh and tendon-" before he can finish his prayer cordelia gently slaps his hand and he looks surprised.

"...i'm sorry. but please. stop. it's... upsetting." cordelia recalls everything, everybody, she lost to grima and her husband nods, his face dropping.

"no, i'm sorry. i forgot." he takes her hand and runs his thumbs along her hand and she sniffles, trying to hold back tears that spawn from how overwhelmed she is. by everything.

"i love you," she whispers, and henry slings his arms around her neck, she's a whole head taller then him but she leans down and they kiss.

"i love you too."

severa makes a face at her parents from where she's woken up in her cradle and they both laugh before henry scoops her up and cordelia turns away the statue so grima isn't looking into her home before opening the door.


End file.
